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MCAT to broadcast hours of racist tapes

White supremacist Matt Hale, no stranger to Montana, will be in town weekly via MCAT, the city’s public access cable channel, beginning June 5.

Hale, who heads up the World Church of the Creator from East Peoria, Ill., has supplied MCAT with three half-hour tapes that will air each week on MCAT at 10 p.m. And there’s more where that came from.

Hale says he has 47 tapes, collectively called “White Revolution,” all of which will eventually be broadcast on MCAT. MCAT’s general manager Joel Baird says he has received three, and will probably air any more that he receives.

The first dozen tapes, says Hale, are of the talking-head variety and feature Hale discussing various news stories, including one on Benjamin Smith, the Church of the Creator adherent who went on a shooting rampage in Chicago, leaving two people dead. Another has Hale discussing his so-far unsuccessful attempts to obtain a law license, and a third discusses the “Jewish influence” in the media. (A message on Hale’s answering machine directs reporters from the “Jews’ media” to call a separate number for an interview and features Hale’s rants against “Jews, niggers and other mud people.”)

The remaining tapes were recorded at what Hale calls public meetings he has held in Peoria and various other venues. He claims the meetings have drawn upwards of 150 people.

One tape features a public discussion of “blacks and why we dislike them and why we don’t want them in our society.” Another has Hale urging people not to vote, and “our whole world view.”

All 47 tapes were produced as “part of our plan of winning the hearts and minds of our people,” says Hale, who spoke from his home in East Peoria.

“Public access is really for the public,” he says. “There was really no choice for MCAT.”

Hale’s Missoula congregant, Dan Hassett, approached MCAT with the idea for the broadcasts.

For his part, Joel Baird says MCAT acts as a conduit for the public, much like the Internet, and does not exercise editorial control over its programming.

MCAT will, however, air a response to Hale by the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, which is headquartered in Seattle and has members in Missoula. The Coalition has already viewed Hale’s three tapes, Baird says.

The Coalition’s response, titled “Social Justice and Human Rights,” will air from 10:30 p.m. until midnight. Viewers will be able to call in and comment during that time.

“That’s what we’re here for,” Baird says, “to provide an open forum … and get pushed around a bit.”

Baird says he can’t anticipate the reaction Hale’s broadcasts will provoke. “It’s all very daring when it comes to First Amendment issues,” he says.